The Princess And the Raven
by Starcube
Summary: A story exploring Princess Tutu if the characters were the opposite gender.


Disclaimed.

Author's Note:

This fic was originally written for Club-Tutu's October Contest, which had the theme of genderbending. Now that voting and stuff is over, I thought I'd post it here.

-Neria is a derivative of the Latin verb 'nere' which means to spin. I thought it appropriate for Fakir's female counterpart.

THE PRINCESS AND THE RAVEN

* * *

Once upon a time, there was an old woman. This woman had been born with the power to make stories into reality. Fearing her power, the woman was killed. However, the Sisterhood who killed her did so before she could finish her final tale...

It was a tale of a princess, kind and beautiful. She loved all things, and people, great or small. One day, when she was old enough to be wed, her parents held a great banquet for all the kingdom's nobility to attend. At the banquet, the princess fell in love with a boy she assumed to be a prince.

This prince was not all that he seemed, however. He was raised by a wicked Raven, who wanted the princess's beautiful heart to make her eternally youthful, and to steal her kingdom as well. The princess had a handmaiden who discovered this and she killed the evil prince, but before she could tell her beloved princess, the Raven tore out her heart and ate it too.

The Princess, devastated by the news that her love was dead, and her handmaiden as well, made a vow to herself that she would bring about such misery to others, and would take her own life to spare them.

In an attempt to save their daughter from her miserable vow, the king and queen sent their daughter away, to another world, along with the soul of her handmaiden to protect her. However, they also opened the way for the Raven to follow them.

To save this new world from the raven, the princess used a magic arrow, and shattered her heart to seal the raven away.

Time stopped for the princess in this new world, unlike for her handmaiden. She had been reborn in the town called Goldkrone, and was called Neria. The story did not move as she grew and aged, until the old woman storyteller pulled a young duck into the story.

This duck too loved the princess, and would do anything to see her happy. Thus he took on the role of the Swan Knight, a young man who gathered the lost shards of the princess's heart for her, but was strictly bound by the rules of Courtly Love, and so could never declare his feelings for her, lest he vanish into a speck of light.

At the same time, the duck was turned into a human boy, wisely named 'Duck.' As a human, he would attend ballet school with the Princess, called Mythessa in this world, and with Neria, would protect the princess. At this school, the duck's princess belonged with a young man called Robb, the best dancer of their class. Even as a boy, Duck was awkward, feet always turned inward, too long in the limbs, and could never dance with the princess. By day, Duck was merely a failure of a ballet student, by night, he was a Knight who could never miss a step.

Returning the heart shards proved no easy task for the prince, for they had found their way into the hearts of the people, and the demons in those people's hearts, so attracted they were by the purity of the shards, would not let them go without a fight.

The handmaiden too, fearing for herself and the princess when the tale began to move again, hindered the prince in his efforts, until she realized that he truly cared for the princess as much, if not more than she did. Eventually, the two formed an uneasy alliance to restore the princess and protect her from Rabesohn, the Raven Prince. They succeeded in doing so until they returned to her the shard of Love, not knowing it had been soaked in the blood of the Raven.

A monstrous change overcame the princess then. She slowly grew from loving others to only desiring to _be_ loved. Many times she tried to steal the hearts of unwitting boys she had charmed to desire her, helped by her Raven Prince, who Duck and Neria learned to also be Robb.

Slowly the Princess was becoming a Raven herself. That is, until a little drummer boy decided to turn the story backwards...

* * *

Rabesohn was sitting on the roof of the boy's dormitory when it happened. Time seemed to stop for a moment, then everything was moving backwards. He alone stood still.

He watched his work of the past weeks fly past him in reverse, everything he had done on his Mother's orders. She had promised the Princess would love him, would only be his if he soaked her shard in his Mother's blood, but now she was only growing increasingly distant from him, more intent on gathering hearts than loving him.

A memory of the time things were peaceful, before the Princess began to regain her heart, before Robb regained his memories of being the Raven Prince, whirled around him. His heart ached for those days again; before the Swan Knight, before Neria and her awful arrows, before everything.

But time did not stop where Rabesohn thought the story had begun again. It continued to flow, back and back, past the time when he had come upon the Princess as a child. He did not need to watch those scenes again, Robb had those memories etched into his heart and mind as though they had happened that very morning.

Things continued to flow to before a time he could remember. Robb found himself in a graveyard of all places, beside a howling basket. The basket itself was not howling though, it was the baby boy inside, screaming at the sight of a raven on the rim. Robb stared at the mewling thing, wanting to reach out to the child and comfort it, but his hand merely passed through.

A voice made the young man pause.

"Help! Help! Has anyone seen my son?"

Robb's heart froze. _It can't be. It can't-_

The child inside the basket was still screaming, but only Robb seemed to be able to hear it. It was pale, even for a baby, and had an unruly mop of brown curls about its head. Something within the boy knew the baby was him.

"There are far too many crows about! He must have been taken by them!"

"My baby, my child! My son!" a woman wailed. The raven picked up the basket in its claws and flew off, joining the murder already clouding the skies.

His Raven mother had never cried for him like that.

Robb could feel his hair falling back into its natural curls as all the rage and hate he had held under the Raven seeped out of him. He felt cold, empty.

_So I'm _not _the Raven's son,_ he thought numbly,_ I was merely kidnapped as a child and raised as a replacement for the Raven the handmaiden killed. It's all been for nothing then. Everything I've done since I was a child has been meaningless; I was just the means to getting the Princess. All that's happened is my fault. It's me that has turned the Princess into a monster, me and my selfish love. I deserve to die for what I've done. _

Robb fell against the tower of the dorm, struggling and failing to stop himself from crying.

Shaking, he thought, _I have to stop this. I have to make things right. I cannot let the Swan Knight set the Raven free!_

As though sensing Robb's thoughts, his mother's creatures whirled around him, tearing at his hair and limbs.

"NO!" he shouted to the empty sky, "I am not yours anymore!"

As his voice echoed into the void of lost time, Robb was brought back to the present, into the cool darkness of night.

* * *

At the same time, the Swan Knight was lying awkwardly sprawled on top of Neria, near Drosselmeyer's tomb.

"G-get off me, you idiot!" the fledgling Spinner spluttered, beet red to her ears.

The young man only grinned, "You wrote a story for me, didn't you? To bring me back. Thank you."

The Sisterhood of Pages stared in awe at the great white bird that had appeared out of nowhere and prevented them from severing the new Spinner's wrists.

"The Swan Knight from the tale," one of them gasped. "To think the story has progressed so far without our knowledge."

"There is nothing we can do now to stop it," said another mournfully, "save hope that this child will end it all justly."

Inside the illusion, Neria frowned.

"For some reason, I can't write a story about Mythessa, but I can write one about you..."

"Thank you, really, Neria," The Swan Knight said. "Inside that place I found Drosselmeyer. I know where the last of the Princess's heart shards are. They're in the gates around the town. I need to find the Princess so that we can return them to her."

"No one's seen her around for days. Or Rabesohn-"

"Robb," Duck stated flatly, he refused to believe that his friend was wholly evil.

"Fine then, _Robb_. No one's seen him either. It's late. We should start our search at dawn."

"Am I going home with you then?" Duck asked, changing back into his normal boy form.

"M-might as well," Neria mumbled, "I'm going to go back to Autora's tomorrow, and if you're going out to search for Mythessa, it's a waste of time to go back to school."

"Okay."

* * *

Neria made Duck sleep in his bird form that night, in a basket with a towel over it. When he asked her why, she threw the towel at his head and told him to get in the damn basket or he could sleep outside. Duck opted for the former.

* * *

They all slept late into the next day. Robb had tossed and turned all night in the dorm room, his last haven, and more often than not would wake up screaming. It was not until sunrise that he truly fell asleep with the curtains wide open, the light holding back the shadows that threatened to swallow the false prince whole.

Neria however, fell asleep almost as soon as she got into bed. Writing Duck's story had taken far more out of her than she had expected. It was terribly draining, but she would not have exchanged it for anything else in the world.

Duck nestled into the basket Neria had given him, but did not fall asleep for a while. Instead, he kept himself awake thinking of the Princess, of Robb, and all of the things he and Neria had done together.

In one of the old abandoned warehouses on the edge of town, Mythessa laughed herself to sleep. The accursed itching of her body had finally stopped when glossy black feathers burst forth from her skin. She was truly a raven now, dark and beautiful, and the whole world would soon love her, and hate all else.

* * *

When Robb finally dragged his weary body out of bed, it was far past noon. He gathered some food for Mythessa, who would no doubt be hungry hidden away in her warehouse. In all of his tossing and turning, he had not thought of anyway to undo the damage the Raven's Blood had done to his Princess.

All the other students were in class, so he went unbothered as he made his way off the grounds and into town. The sky was clear and bright, with few clouds. Robb felt that the sky should more justly reflect his dark mood.

When he reached the warehouse, he approached it apprehensively. He could here no sound from the inside.

Mythessa had not lit any of the lamps in the room, so Robb had to squint to find his Princess in the gloom.

"Mythessa?" he called, "Where are you? I brought you some food."

"Food?" came a twisted voice from above. Robb spun on the spot to try and find the source. "I have all the food I need here."

A great black _thing_ in a torn Goldkrone Academy uniform dropped from the rafters.

"No..." Robb inhaled.

The Princess had sprouted feathers, a beak, monstrous talons. There was nothing left of the girl there but that it stood on two legs. She held a wriggling mouse between the feathers where her fingers used to be.

"They are so cute when they squirm, aren't they? Heh heh?"

Robb lunged for the struggling creature, dropping his basket in the process.

"Leave it alone! You're a person, not an animal!"

Mythessa laughed, high and cruel, almost a cackle like his mother's, "And here I thought we were both Ravens. What is it, Robb, afraid to embrace your true self? Heh heh?"

"I am not a Raven," Robb shouted, "and neither are you!"

"Sad, isn't it?" Raven Mythessa intoned, "But don't worry, when I get all of my heart back, I will give it over to the Raven, and we can all be beautiful forever."

"What have I done to you? Me, loving you, it's turned you into this...I have no right to love you. I have no right to even live!"

Mythessa extended a feathered hand to him, "Come dance with me, my Prince."

_One final time then, before I give my life to change you back._ "I am no prince, but I will dance with you."

* * *

Duck found Robb later, curled up in the shadows of the east gate. His eyes were red and puffy.

"Oh hey, Robb," he called. "How come you're not in school?"

"How could I be, with the Princess the way she is?"

"The way that-Oh! So you know where Mythessa is?"

"In the one of the old warehouses. Why?"

"Thanks, Robb!" Duck turned and was about to head to the warehouse district when Robb grabbed his arm.

"Why are you going to her?"

"Well, you see, I've found the last heart shards, so I need to find the Princess to give them back!"

Robb's eyes went wide, and he held Duck by both his shoulders harshly.

"_You can't do that_," he growled, shaking, "If you do, she'll offer herself to the Raven!"

"Why would she do that?"

"BECAUSE OF ME!" Robb roared, "It's all my fault! I'm the one who turned her into this! I've messed up everything, but I can at least stop you from unsealing the Raven!"

Robb pulled back his fist and swung for Duck's face. The younger boy crouched low to avoid it, his blue eyes wide with fright.

"Robb! What're you-"

"If it were me, if I were the Swan Knight, I would never give the Princess her last heart shards! Never! Not if it meant freeing that monster!"

The dark haired boy stared at his hands, twitching and trembling with fear. _These hands, these are the hands of a monster too. A monster the world should soon be rid of. _He balled his fists at his sides.

"Duck, can you do something for me?"

"What?" the other boy asked apprehensively.

"I want you to promise me that you will never release the Raven from her prison-"

"But Robb-"

"-And then, I want you to kill me."

"Robb, what? I can't. I wouldn't-"

"You _have _to. I deserve to die for what I've done, to the Princess, to you, to everyone."

"I CAN'T!" Duck shouted, and tore himself away from the older boy's grasp, fleeing for the safety of the lake he had once called home.

* * *

Duck hadn't known that Uzura had been following him around all day. The little drummer boy had been tailing him ever since Neria had left to go see the mean girl with the glasses who didn't like him.

When the redhead had tripped over his own awkward feet and returned to his bird form, Uzura heard the voice inside his head that he met in place of gears.

"Puppet-me wants to tell Duck something-zura?"

"There is something that Duck doesn't know. A thing he should have been told before," came the echoes of Mr. Edel.

"Is it something that Puppet-me has to tell him-zura?"

"If you will let me."

"If it will help Duck-zura!"

This last comment, Duck heard from his lump of discarded clothing.

"Uzura? What are you doing here?" he quacked dully, "Neria told you to stay home."

"Puppet-me wants to tell you something-zura. He says it's something Duck should know from before-zura."

"Mr. Edel?" Duck quacked again.

Without warning, Uzura started tapping on Duck's head with his drumstick. Duck flailed with the sudden contact, and started quacking angrily, but Uzura did not relent.

_ Ka-Thumpthump, Ka-Thumpthump, Ka-Thumpthump._

_It's a heartbeat, _Duck realized,_ Uzura's heartbeat. _

Soon the heartbeat turned into a voice, the voice that had once guided Duck so well, and whose owner had given his life to save Neria from drowning weeks ago.

"There is something Duck doesn't know. Something that Duck needs to know. The heart shards in the town are not the last. There is one more."

"One more? But Drosselmeyer said-"

"The last heart shard is the pendant, Duck. It seeks out the other shards, because it is one itself. The pendant allows you to become the Swan Knight, the only being that can restore the Princess's heart."

"So you're saying that before she shattered her heart, Mythessa already knew that she someday would want it to be whole again?"

"That was the Princess's will. However, whether you return the shard or not rests upon your will alone."

"Mr. Edel-"

Uzura had stopped tapping. Duck's head felt a little sore, but clearer all the same.

_It was the Princess's will that her heart be returned to her. It will be my will as well._

"Is Duck feeling better-zura?"

Duck hopped into the lake, and resurfaced as a boy again. Uzura stared sadly at him from the shore.

"Duck is going to go back to being a duck-zura. Aren't you-zura? And you won't change back, even with water-zura."

The human boy ruffled the puppet-boy's hair, "That's how it's going to be Uzura. That's how it has to be."

The pitter-patter of tears on the canvas drum told him that Uzura was crying, but Duck didn't look back to see. If he did, he might have started crying as well.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Autora's house, the girl was positively trembling with excitement.

"You mean to tell me, Neria, that I was right!" the violet haired, bespectacled girl exclaimed, "That we are really and truly living in a story written by the great Madame Drosselmeyer herself!"

"It won't change each time you ask me," Neria replied, unnerved a bit by her companion's enthusiastic obsession with the writer. "The Princess and the Swan Knight are both very real, and so is the Raven. I was the reincarnation of the handmaiden, I think, once, but now I must write a story."

Autora exploded with laughter. It made Neria want to smack her across the face.

"_You?_ Write a story?" she cried incredulously, "You've got to be crazy. Your skills are far to weak, if all you've done so far is let the story write itself through you."

"Why do you _think_ I'm here? I need your help," Neria grit out, though it made her feel slightly nauseated to admit it.

Autora seemed to be drinking it in, every second Neria was admitting weakness. She loved to watch as the darker girl squirmed.

"What's in it for me?"

* * *

By the time Duck had returned to the center of town, Robb was nowhere to be found. Still, Duck headed for the warehouses that the other boy had told him about earlier. Before he could reach the first door however, dark mass burst forth.

"Hello, Duck," came the Princess's voice from a Raven mouth, "won't you dance with me?"

Eyes wide and fearful, Duck understood why Robb was in such a state.

"WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT! WHY ARE YOU AFRAID!" Mythessa shrieked, her beak wide, "WHY DO YOU FEAR ME, WHEN I AM SO BEAUTIFUL!"

In a hurricane of feathers, the Princess took to the sky. She would find the only one on earth as beautiful as her.

Duck ran after her, remembering the heart shards. If he returned them to her, perhaps the Princess would return to her human self. He ran and ran until he found the Princess, collapsed in Robb's arms. The boy was in his raven form again, all black and feathers, but his hair hung loosely about his face, as though to hide it from the world. He was crying into the Princess's feathered shoulders.

There was something he needed to know. Duck transformed into the Swan Knight before them.

"Robb, listen."

The boy looked up, "This pendant that turns me into the Swan Knight is a heart shard as well. So it seems that it is the Princess's will that all her heart be returned to her."

"What's the point, if all she will do with it is hand it right over to the Raven!"

"We should trust this to the Princess's will. You don't have to be alone in saving her."

Duck extended a hand to the fallen pair. Robb considered it for a long time before joining with his own.

"We must go to the gate. I can summon the shards from there."

"I'll carry the Princess," said Robb. The Princess meekly wheezed in protest. The Swan Knight only nodded.

* * *

"Gates of Goldkrone, release the shards of the Princess's heart! I, the Swan Knight, command it!"

At the knight's words, the gates of the town began to glow, a pale, fiery blue against the daylight.

A gathering of wispy apparitions formed around the storybook trio, the Knight, Prince and Princess. A myriad of feelings gathered for their mistress.

"Is this what we have become? How sad."

"We do not even look like ourself anymore!"

"We must return and restore the Princess at once. We're running out of time!"

"The Raven will be free soon, our power can only linger for moments more."

"Shards, you are free to return to the Princess!" announced the Swan Knight.

The shards all turned to him at once and curtseyed. Then in unison, "Thank you, valiant Swan Knight. We have one more task to ask of you. Should restoring us not restore the Princess and free her from the Raven's curse, we beg that you not restore the final shard until she is freed."

The Swan Knight bowed low, "As my Princess wishes."

As the spirits of the shards converged into one and made their way to their creator, and echoed 'Thank you' rang through the air.

Both Robb and the Swan Knight waited with bated breath as the Princess glowed a shimmering blue for a moment, and moaned as though in pain. Then, as quickly as it had come, the light faded, but the Princess remained as she was, black feathers and all.

"NO!" Robb shouted, the pain evident in his voice. He rounded on Duck. "You said-"

A shaking of the earth cut him off. The gates of Goldkrone were crumbling with the force of it. A darkness descended upon the town as the monstrous Lady Raven began to stretch her wings.

"It's too late," Robb breathed. "It's all too late..."

"What?"

"I thank you, Swan Knight, for freeing me from my wretched prison," the Raven drawled.

"The Princess will defeat you!" the Knight shouted defiantly.

"The _Princess_ is mine own creature now, foolish boy. Her heart belongs to me."

"You're wrong!"

"PRINCESS!" Mythessa looked around wildly at the Raven's calling of her name, "Come to me now, under your own power!"

"Princess, don't!" Robb shouted. He turned to Duck, "Don't let her go."

"Robb, what-"

The dark boy had deposited the Princess onto the redhead before he could finish. The former Prince materialized his sword of thorns and darkness with what power remained to him. He rose up to face the Raven on a pillar of wild black brambles. Here he would make his last stand, against the creature that had raised him, against all the lies he had been fed since childhood. He would probably fail and die in the attempt.

Robb felt justified in such a death.

"You dare defy me, boy? Your own mother?"

"You are not my mother," Robb cried. "And you never were!"

The Raven laughed in response, "So you've figured it out then. Yes, that's right. You are not my child. Just a pitiful human boy raised on my blood. You could have been my son, you _should_ have been my son, but your human heart was far too weak to embrace the fullness of my blood. Even with an incomplete heart, the Princess has accepted far more of my power."

So intent was he on listening to the exchange between the Raven and the former prince that the Swan Knight had not noticed that the Princess was struggling to rise. A few quick flaps of her malformed wings, and she was in the air and out of his arms.

"Mythessa, no!"

It was too late. As though intoxicated by the very blood in her veins, the Princess made her weaving flight toward the giant Raven Mistress, cackling all the while.

"PRINCESS, NO!"

Robb dove off his platform of thorns, a grande jeté to get his Princess out of harm's way. He nearly crashed into her as he redirected her flight toward a roof of a now abandoned house. At the very last moment, he twisted in the air, so that it was his back, and not hers that hit the tile. Still black beast struggled in his arms. Robb held her tightly all the same.

"You mustn't go to the Raven, Princess. You mustn't," He murmured against what used to be her hair, regardless of the sharp beak that dug into his neck. "I will fight the Raven and free you from this curse, even if I should die in the attempt."

"Knight," he called to the figure on the ground, "I leave the Princess in your keeping. Please do not let her go again."

The young knight rose up to the rooftop on his own pillar of vines, green and living. A wedge of guilt had made its way into his heart, for letting the Princess go, and for the broken look on his friend's face. A new determination struck him, though, and he nodded.

"What will you do, Robb?"

"What I do best, knight. Hurt others."

"That's not true!"

Robb was back on the battlefield before he could finish. Dark sword in hand, he prepared to attack the Raven full on.

"Idiot boy, do you really think you can defeat _me _with my _own_ power?"

"Not in the slightest, _Lady Mother,_" Robb spat acidly, "But I _will_ try."

"You would die for a Princess that doesn't even love you?"

"I love her. And now, that is the only thing that matters."

The Raven laughed, more cruelly and bitterly than before, "Come at me then, let's see what your foolish _love_ can do!"

A dozen of the Prince's own Raven Knights appeared on the stage, dressed in full armor and wielding swords that glistened like ice. Robb glared down all of them with his blood red eyes.

Then suddenly, they all converged on him at the same time, twenty against one. Blades flashed and clanged against each other. Duck saw blood, but he wasn't sure whose. The Princess was struggling again.

Duck wanted to be there, fighting alongside Robb, there was no way either of them could do it alone, and there didn't seem to be away to break the curse. Then Duck had an idea.

_Neria,_ he thought, _She's in town, at Autora's house. If I can get the Princess to her, I can come back and help Robb face the Raven!_

_

* * *

_

_**Foolish little Duck, you think you can escape my tragedy so easily...**_

_** Go, my sisters in untimely death! Teach this bird to know his place!**_

* * *

Getting the Princess to Autora's house was a battle in itself. She flailed and clawed at Duck's face and exposed neck, more than once making an attempt to fly out of his arms.

However, the real trial awaited him before the threshold. A congregation of women in white stood in the knight's path, identical in pallor and in dress. Wispy white gowns swirled around them in a nonexistent wind, and from their throats came an unearthly gasp at Duck's approach.

_The Wilis from Giselle, brought to life by Drosselmeyer's story! They drive men to their deaths by dancing with them until they run out of life! _He could avoid them if he became a duck, but that would mean letting go of Mythessa, and he had promised Robb...

The Wilis were not going to give him time to think. Already they had circled around the living pair. Three of the undead women grabbed Duck's arms from behind and forced him to let go of the Princess. With a wail that sounded more desperate than victorious, she took to the skies.

Meanwhile, the Wilis pressed in, their cold hands encircling the Swan Knight's body. He shrank away from them, but still they pressed on. Duck unsheathed his sword from the scabbard at his waist, but it did no good. The Wilis could touch him, but he could not so much as graze them, his blade passing through their translucent bodies.

They were driving him away from the town, toward a lake beyond the gates that Drosselmeyer had created as a fitting punishment for the wayward duck.

No matter what the knight did, the Wilis pressed on. The cold that surrounded them was making his very breath freeze in his lungs. He was weakening, his frantic gasps for air bringing in less and less each time, and his vision was going hazy.

Duck was so cold that it took him far too long to realize that he was up to his knees in water. The Wilis had driven him into a lake that he could not recall ever being there before.

_**This is the Lake of Dispair, little Duck, a place where wretches like you should come to rest.**_

_Wretches like me,_ Duck thought wearily,_ a place to rest. _

_**Yes, rest little duck, and let the foolish Raven Prince fight his mother and end in a glorious death. Let the Princess be cursed to be a Raven forevermore.**_

_ Let the Princess-No! I-_

_**You have already seen that you can do nothing, you who let the Princess go, and broke your promise. **_

_I can truly do nothing. Nothing. I am only a duck. There is nothing I can..._

And so with Drosselmeyer's wicked urgings, the Swan Knight became a mere boy again, and slipped unresisting into the water below.

* * *

Back inside the town, among the bodies of his former subordinates stood Robb. He had fought off the Raven Knights, but Duck and the Princess were nowhere to be seen.

_Perhaps he took her somewhere safer,_ Robb hoped, _Otherwise-_

A flash of black and white caught is attention. For a moment, Robb knew true despair.

Mythessa had somehow escaped again, or Duck had let her go. She was flying with complete abandon to the Raven, and Robb would never reach her in time.

"PRINCESS! No! Don't go!" he screamed running after her in vain, "PLEASE!"

She didn't seem to hear him. Robb tripped over a fallen sword, slamming hard into the cobbled streets, biting his tongue so hard that he tasted the Raven's blood he abhorred so much.

"PLEASE PRINCESS! I LOVE YOU!"

Then time seemed to stand still.

A white light seemed to be emanating from the Princess, and to Robb's eyes, it looked as though her Raven's feathers were fading. She appeared as herself again, pale, white-haired and fragile. And she was falling.

"No!" Robb shouted, he would not let her be freed from his mother's curse only to die from a fall. With nearly the dregs of his Raven powers, he summoned a thicket of vines to cushion her landing. Not for the first time did he wish that his vines were composed of something other than thorns.

"So you do have some resolve in you, boy!" crowed the Raven.

"What?"

Suddenly Robb was gripped about the arms by several sets of talons. He was in the air, held aloft by a quartet of his mother's hench-birds. His eyes were wide with horror.

"Perhaps you may become my son yet. You will become a part of my body, and be reborn when I eat the Princess's heart. May you not prove a disappointment the second time around."

Robb began to struggle, trying to tear at the birds gripping his limbs, and failing. His princess may have been freed from the curse, but she was far from safe.

Down below, Mythessa felt dizzy. There was something beating within her breast that had not been there before. It was fluttering like a pair of fragile wings.

"What is...this feeling that I have? So weak but bright?"

She looked down at her hands, they were hands again, pale and long fingered.

"How did I become myself again? Did the Swan Knight-?"

"Let me go!" came a shout, "I won't become yours again! I won't!"

"No, Robb!" the Princess breathed. "NO!"

"So the Princess has returned to her human body, how pathetic," the Raven said, as though it mattered little to her. "Just in time to bear witness to the beginning of my son's rebirth."

"I WON'T GO, I-"

Then the Raven swallowed the boy whole. Mythessa shrieked in rage and horror. She grabbed a pair of Raven swords that had fallen, and began running toward the great beast.

"GIVE HIM BACK, YOU MONSTER!"

A swipe of the Raven's wing was enough to force the Princess backward, and summon another round of Knights to face her.

"No. My son is mine and mine alone. He will rest deep inside my belly until he is reborn when I eat your heart. You cannot kill me, for you would kill him as well. Likewise, should you seal me away, the boy would suffer the same fate."

Mythessa was barely listening, focusing more on the clang of metal against metal as she fought off the Raven knights in their glittering black mail skirts. The sword had never been her favored weapon. How the Princess wished she had her bow, but Neria had broken it before the Princess could destroy a piece of her own heart with it.

The creatures came at her, but the girl was much too agile for them. Not one of the bird-women could even further tear her school uniform. However, Mythessa could not defeat the Raven with fallen swords. The Princess needed her own weapons, her bow and magic arrows, if she ever wanted to see Robb again.

"Your heart is strong, girl, even for a human," the Raven intoned, "but you are not nearly the Princess I once fought. You have until tomorrow dawn to come before me with your whole heart, or I will destroy this little town when I come to find you."

"Tomorrow dawn will be your last time on earth, Raven!"

"THEN LET US BEGIN THE CELEBRATION OF MY REBIRTH NOW! ALL THE WORLD WILL SOAK IN MY BLOOD, AND BECOME MY RAVEN KIN!"

Thick, dark drops began to fall from the blackened sky, drops of the Raven's own blood, the same blood that now ran through the Princess's veins. The townspeople were called to the storm by the tale they were wrapped in. Even children who ought to have been at the Academy were drawn to the center of town by Drosselmeyer's story.

"No! Get back! All of you! To your houses! Don't let it touch you!"

The Princess's cries were too late. The crimson blood enveloped the square in a hazy mist, covering the town, and when it cleared, what remained could no longer be called people.

Horrified at the sight, but untouched by the blood herself, the Princess ran. She had only a few short hours before it would all be over.

Before she could take five steps though, everything froze.

* * *

All of Autora's talking was not helping Neria write in the slightest. In truth, it was making her desire increasingly to merely punch her distant relation in the face, manners be damned.

"Now, _this_ is the tea that Madame Drosselmeyer used to drink as she wrote. It's two parts-"

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE DAMNED TEA!" Neria shouted, "This isn't helping! This is just making me annoyed! Shut up and go away so I can think!"

Autora ignored her, and continued, "Come to think of it, it is oddly noisy outside. I'll go tell the neighbors to keep it down."

When the girl left the room, Neria turned back to the page before her. _What to write, what to write. What can I create that will stop Drosselmeyer's tragedy?_

She looked about the room, casting around the relics of the dead Spinner's life for inspiration. Then the light shifted drastically and everything went silent.

_**"So you want to write a story, do you?"**_

"What the hell!" Neria cried, "Madame Drosselmeyer!"

_**"These old things certainly do bring back memories," **_the dead woman sighed,_** "pity most of them are poor imitations."**_

"What are you doing here! You're supposed to be dead!"

_**"Oh, I am very much dead, little girl,"**_ sang Drosselmeyer. _**"But I came back to this world to help a fledgling Spinner write a story."**_

"I don't need help, least of all from you, you sadistic bitch!"

_**"Mind your manners girl,"**_ the writer snapped, _**"You should know better than to talk to your elders like that. Now let's see, what is the tale that you're going to write? Shall it be," **_a whirling gear appeared out of nowhere, showing the Princess in flight, _**"a tale where the Princess finds the rest of her heart, and trades it to the Raven for her lover's life?"**_

"Mythessa! What, her lover?"

_**"Oh yes, the Raven Prince declared his love for the Princess, and saved her from becoming a Raven herself. I'd like to think she's chosen **_**him **_**to be her Prince, how beautifully tragic! But what of the Swan Knight, you must wonder!"**_

With a sweep of the dead woman's gloved hands, Neria's own moved to the top corner of a page. Loaded quill began to bleed upon the page, writing words that were not the girl's.

_**"Driven by the souls of women betrayed, Duck found his rest at the bottom of the lake called Despair."**_

"Just what are you making me write!" Neria grunted, trying to force her puppet hand to stop moving.

_**"The Knight had faltered too many times, could not accept the changes in his Princess, and let her go. The souls of the Wilis could not allow such a betrayal from the sworn Knight, and so tormented him until he decided that his death was the only way to set things right."**_

"Duck, no!"

_**"He sank deeper and deeper into the lake, resolved to vanish for the good of everyone."**_

"No! I WON'T LET YOU!" Neria made a grab for the letter-opener that lay innocently on the desk. She tried to lunge for the dead woman, but her hand anchored her to the page. She glared at Drosselmeyer, who only grinned wickedly in response. Then the girl got an idea._ If my hand can't move, I can't keep writing!_

Drosselmeyer's bulbous orange eyes widened further, her wrinkled face stretching grotesquely as the slim blade sank deep into Neria's flesh.

All at once the world regained it's color, and the air cleared as a stabbing pain ran up the green haired girl's arm. She had do get out of here, she had to find Duck.

Not minding the blood that dripped thickly down her injured hand, Neria tore off an end of her skirts to make a bandage, and set to leave. She left her bow and quiver leaning against the wall, knowing they could do nothing against the supernatural fiends.

Before she could leave the house though, Autora crashed into her.

"Wait! Where are you going? You can't go out there-What? You're covered in blood! What happened?"

The tan girl pushed past, making for the door, "Drosselmeyer was here. The woman made me write a story..."

"Madame Drosselmeyer...was here? In this room?" Autora breathed. Her knees gave out from under her, "How marvelous!"

"You're insane!" said Neria pushing the door open with her good hand. Spatters of blood bounced off her skin and onto the reddening pavement.

"What the hell!"

"It's like after the Raven Prince's murder in the story, when the Lady Raven turned all the kingdom's peasants into crows as vengeance on the king and queen." Autora said quietly, "The tale is living itself through us."

"We already know that. I have to go find Duck! Is there any way to follow the Wilis?"

"They only go after men; you know that."

"I'll just have to find them some other way, then!" Neria said, tearing out the door. She nearly tripped over Uzura in the process.

"Is Neria going to find Duck-zura?" the little boy asked.

"Yes. Have you seen him?"

"The ladies in white took him away-zura. But I followed them where they could not see-zura!"

"Can you bring me to where they took him?"

"Follow me-zura!"

* * *

Meanwhile, oblivious to the blip in the time stream, Mythessa was running. She had to find someone, anyone who was not a crow, someone who could help her. Where was her Knight when she needed him most?

"The Princess from the story!" a voice called out behind her.

"Who calls me?" Mythessa responded, "Are you human or Raven?"

A violet-haired girl appeared from the doorway of a nearby house. She was careful not to stray into the dripping blood that still slipped from the doorframe.

"Please, Your Majesty, come inside where it's safe," said the girl, curtseying low, but not moving her awestruck eyes from the Princess's face.

"Who are you? How do you know of me?"

"I am called Autora. A friend of Neria's, I supposeyou could call me."

"Neria? So you know where she is?"

"She left to go find Duck. I don't know where she's looking."

The Princess could not let the disappointment show on her face, "Will she come back here?"

"Yes," Autora said confidently, but still with a look of reverence on her face, "She has to. Neria must be here to finish the story."

"Then I will wait with you."

"Anything you wish, Your Majesty."

"Please, call me Princess if you must, but otherwise, I prefer Mythessa."

"You do not wish to be called by your real name?"

"My real name? I do not know it," said the Princess.

Autora's heart was beating so quickly she could hear its pulse in her ears. The Princess, Drosselmeyer's finest creation, was here, in her house! Oh, the things she could tell her! She stood inside the house, too excited to speak for a few moments.

"May I ask you something?" said the Princess.

"Anything you wish, Your Majesty. Name it and I will-"

"Why is Neria looking for Duck?"

"Who knows? That girl does things according to her own will, with complete disregard for anyone else."

"You're wrong," the Princess said quietly, "All she has ever done has been for someone else."

Autora seemed to consider this for a moment, "She mentioned something about the Wilis."

"The Wilis have taken Duck? But why? He has never betrayed anyone, he's a good and loyal friend!"

"What about the Swan Knight?"

"What does that have to do with-"

"Your Majesty, Duck _is_ the Swan Knight."

For that was the price Autora had set. Neria had to tell the girl everything she knew about the story in exchange for her help.

* * *

Neria followed the puppet boy farther and farther from the center of town. It was getting colder and colder with few yards they traveled. When they reached a portion of the Goldkrone wall that had collapsed, however, she paused.

"It's strange. I've never even thought about leaving the town before..."

"Are you coming-zura?"

"What, yes!"

And they were off again.

Under the surface of the Lake of Despair, it was cool and quiet. Duck lay on what he thought was the bottom, too tired to even move.

_I'm worthless,_ he thought, _And a fool. I thought I could become a knight and protect the Princess, but in the end, I am only a duck. In the end, I betrayed her. It would be better for everyone if I just vanished. _

* * *

Neria knew they had reached the lake when her lungs were icy and a thick fog surrounded them. Soon she could make out the vague shapes of the Wilis from the mist. They lined the shore light a white, shimmering wall; a vigil waiting for the death of the boy at the bottom of the lake.

A pair of the women stepped in front of Neria, arms overlapping to bar her way. Their blank eyes stared past the girl to the forest beyond as they shook their heads.

"You _will_ let me past," the girl said, "Or I will move you."

The women did not move. Neria took a step toward them, and then another. They reached out cold hands to grab her, but passed through instead. Neria's eyes went wide.

_Is it because I'm human, and not a character in the story anymore? Or is it because I am a descendant of Drosselmeyer?_

She had not time to consider the matter, the Wilis were closing in. They could not physically harm her, but that did not stop each limb that passed through her body from feeling like her insides had been doused in ice.

She performed tight pirouettes on the balls of her feet, nimbly avoiding as much contact with the spirits as possible. Arching and bending, twisting and turning the girl fought her way through the gathered crowd until her feet touched water.

The Wilis stopped trying to take her after that. They all possessed similar dazed expressions on their faces, as though confused by what Neria was trying to do.

"Go save Duck-zura!" the pupped boy shouted from the edge of the woods.

"Don't!" cried the girl, fearing that the boy's shouts would draw the Willis' attention to him. She needn't have worried so. The maidens did not so much as blink at Uzura's outburst. They simply stared at the girl before them, as though lost.

After waiting a moment, Neria tore off half the length of her skirt. It would only serve to weigh her down in the water. She dumped the extra fabric on the shore of the lake and dove into the still water. It was dark blue with grey, like Duck's eyes at night.

_When did I begin to notice such things?_ she thought, _But more importantly, why can I still breathe in this place?_

Deeper and deeper the girl swam, until she was all but surrounded by blackness. She was beginning to wonder how long she had been swimming, when shapes began to materialize out of the gloom. A human figure lay curled up on the bottom of the lake. From where she was floating, Neria could still see Duck's bright hair.

"Duck! Duck!" she called, her voice taking on a slight burble in the water.

The boy turned, dragging his face and torso off the cool lake's floor. "Neria?" he said, "Oh! The Wilis didn't get you too, did they?"

"Idiot," the girl said softly as she floated to the ground. "The Wilis only go after men."

"Then why are you here? You can't mean to disappear, the Princess needs you too much."

Neria frowned at him, "I came to get you. Let's go, Duck."

"No! I can't! I've betrayed the Princess, and Robb! All I've done is make a mess of everything. I have to stay here, out of the way, where I can't do any more damage."

"Duck. Will you dance with me?" Neria extended her hand.

Duck eyed her warily, "You won't try to kick me in the head this time, will you?"

Neria shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the pas de deux the two of them had danced for the Eleki Troupe. She had be unnecessarily violent with him then, aiming to bruise with every moment of forced contact.

"I'm not that person anymore, Duck. I promise I won't hurt you."

And so he took her hand.

* * *

Back in the town, Mythessa sat frozen in shock. Autora had told her everything, _everything_ she knew about the story, save the Princess's true name.

"But Robb is still alive! The story has changed somehow, from what it once was, so that Neria never killed him."

"The Swan Knight's doing, I would think," replied Autora. "He barely makes an appearance in the original text, only there for a few lines, in the last of which he vanishes forever. In this story, from what Neria's told me, he has done so much more."

"You seem to know everything, don't you?"

"Nothing that matters, Your Majesty, for I cannot tell you where the rest of your heart is, nor the whereabouts of your handmaiden and Knight."

"It is enough, what you have told me. I am grateful for anything that will help us."

Autora turned a magnificent shade of pink and was about to reply when the door creaked open. A soaking Neria and Duck crossed the threshold, with a grinning Uzura in tow. Both adolescents' faces were flushed, and their breathing was uneven.

Autora stood up at their appearance, "Just _what_ have you two been up to?" she said, pointing a finger accusatorially.

"Before you _think _of implying anything, we just fought our way through the remains of an army of Wilis!" Neria spat, though her flush deepened several shades. "Drosselmeyer seems to have brought them out to support the Raven, a woman of sorts, betrayed by her own son."

"Robb never betrayed that monster! She lied!" the Princess exclaimed.

"Lies and truth are no different to Madame Drosselmeyer," Neria replied.

Interrupting the conversation, Duck suddenly bowed low, "Princess, I-"

"Wait, you idiot! You're not-"

"I know Duck is the Swan Knight, Neria."

"Princess," Duck started again, still kneeling, "I'm sorry for abandoning you earlier. I-"

"You are forgiven," Mythessa stated. "Everyone's heart has a right to a moment of doubt."

"Thank you, Princess. I also bring you your final heart shard. It's in the pendant-"

"I don't want it."

"What!" Duck exclaimed, "But without it you can't defeat the Raven!"

"And with it, should I fail, the Raven will gain immortality. I cannot leave that possibility. Instead, I ask that you don your sword one last time, my Knight, and help me defeat the Raven."

"All of your magic was sealed away in that shard!" Autora chimed in, "Without your magic, the Raven will destroy you in a heartbeat!"

Neria had an idea. "Perhaps we could cut the shard. A piece for the Princess, and a piece for the Knight. That way, the heart would not be complete, but the Princess would not be without protection."

"We could, but with what?" the Princess asked, "My bow was broken, and my quiver snapped long ago."

Neria pointed to the corner of the room where her quiver lay, "You can use that. It may not be as powerful as the Princess's own magic, but it has served me well enough."

"Right."

The snowy girl pulled an arrow the quiver and strung the bow. The instrument glowed silver at the Princess's touch.

"Duck, the heart shard, if you would?"

Duck looked nervously at Autora, "Only if _she _leaves the room. I won't do it in front of her."

"What's wrong with _me_?" Autora snarled. Duck bowed his head, shifting nervously from foot to foot.

_He doesn't want her to know that he's a duck, _Neria realized. "Autora, please," she said. "Some things must be done that we humans should not bear witness to."

The green haired girl pushed Autora out into the hall, while Duck and Mythessa merely stared at each other.

"Shall we get started then?" the princess asked.

"Mythessa..." Duck began, "When I take off the pendant...don't be...don't be...weirded out by what you see, please."

"I recall dating an anteater once. I cannot believe that anything I see can be stranger than that."

Duck then undid the clasp that held the sapphire blue pendant to his school uniform. He held it in trembling hands as he passed it to the princess. The second it left his fingertips, the world grew larger. Fingers became feathers, toes webbed, ankles ribbed.

The Princess's eyes grew wide as the boy before her shrank down to a little yellow duck in a bundle of clothing.

"Something so small as this accomplished so much," she breathed in a reverent whisper, "And for me. Who am I to take away the humanity that you have so rightfully earned?"

Duck only quacked in response.

* * *

Inside the Raven, Robb danced. It was all he could do to keep from going mad. He danced Hilarion's death at the hands of the Wilis, over and over again. Each successive turn became wilder and more desperate, each landing from a jump sent the boy careening farther and farther into the emptiness before him.

It was not Wilis who tormented him here, but his own demons. Regret, guilt, sorrow, each forced his limbs beyond their limits, each seeking to destroy the boy in its own way.

Robb's only company in this hell was the many remains of other mortals, some perhaps, other failed sons of the Raven. He would join them soon. His body would give out, his flesh disappear, and he would be sentenced to be an anonymous skeleton for the rest of eternity.

* * *

When Neria judged that it was safe to return to the Princess and Duck, she and Autora came upon the Princess, now resplendent in a blue and white ensemble with a feathered overskirt instead of her tattered school uniform. The Swan Knight stood beside her, the pendant that had been centered in his tunic was considerably smaller than it had been, but there all the same.

Neria hadn't realized how tense she had been until she felt herself relax at the sight of him.

"It worked, then?" she asked.

"So it would seem," said the Princess.

"It's almost dawn," Autora told them. "Your Majesty, you should go."

Mythessa nodded. She picked up what had been Neria's quiver, but like the Princess it had changed in dress. Instead of the neutral browns and greens of dyed leather, it was now an icy blue with gold and silver inlay. The arrows too, now hummed with an unearthly power.

Autora curtseyed low again as she passed.

"I'll be there in a moment," the Swan Knight said. "There's something I must do here first."

"Very well, but please hurry. Robb may not have that much time."

The Knight turned to Neria, "Do you think you could write a story for me, just once more?" He looked over his shoulder to make sure the Princess was out of earshot. "The heart shard...it wants to go back. I don't think I can stay like this for very long."

Neria took his hands in hers, "When that happens, I'll still be with you. And forever after."

_Why is it that whenever I'm feeling weak, Neria is always there to tell me I'm still strong?_ Duck smiled, "Thank you, Neria. For everything. I guess...I'll see you around."

"You idiot. You'll come right back here when this is over. I'll be waiting."

* * *

Outside, the town was covered in darkness. Thick purple clouds coated the sky and blocked out the sun. A red mist from the rain of blood hung in the air, giving it a metallic tang to the Princess's nose. Even the normally colorful townspeople had gone dark, their individually bright clothing replaced by blacks and reds of the Raven.

Mythessa arrived at the center of town, with her Knight close behind, barely moments before the morning bell rang.

"So you've come then!" boomed the Raven, "And you've brought your little knight with you as well! A fitting sacrifice for my revival!"

"This is as far as you come, Raven!" the Princess shouted, "I will stop you here!"

Duck felt the heart shard pulse. Whether the Princess knew or not, she was calling out to it, her desire to save Robb stronger than her fear of the Raven's full revival.

"With your complete heart or not, neither you nor your knight will ever be able to lay a hand on me! Come, Crows of Goldkrone! Defend your mistress to your last!"

"No!" the Princess breathed, as the citizens of the town, garbed in black feathers drew forth.

"Princess, we cannot fight them!" Duck cried, "They may belong to the Raven now, but they are still innocent people!"

"I know that! But what can we do?"

**Duck was trying to come up with a plan as the Raven folk began their attack. With sharp beaks and claws they tried to wound the Princess and Knight, but the duo was far too quick for them. **

"Princess! I cannot fight them," Duck thought he saw Pietro and Lyle in the crowd, even Miss Cat, the ballet instructor, "But I can dance with them. Please, take the heart shard and defeat the Raven. I will take care of everyone here."

"But Knight-"

"Please go! Save your Prince. He is waiting for you."

And with that, the Swan Knight sent the pendant to its home deep within the Princess's chest. All at once, the Princess knew what at last she had been missing. The Swan Knight maintained human form just long enough for his 'Goodbye' to hang in the air.

* * *

"DUCK, NO!" Neria shouted to the pages in front of her, "You idiot, you'll be killed!"

"What's going on?" asked Autora, "What have you written!"

A crashing sound stopped Neria from answering.

"What's that?"

"Pay it no mind," Autora said quickly, "Just write!"

The violet haired girl ran to the door, but stepped back when she noticed the splintering wood. Where the door fell away, she could make out the shape of a cloaked woman.

"One of the Sisters!" she squealed, before diving out of the way of the swinging axe.

"We should have cut off your hands when we had the chance, girl," the Sister moaned, "Now my kin have all turned to crows, and we are all fallen to hell! I have come to set things right, and deal to you your punishment-"

Autora shoved one of the many bookshelves into the doorway, then another. She would not permit the Sister to destroy the story now, not when it had just barely begun.

* * *

As the world grew larger, Duck noticed that Wilis were appearing among the townspeople. The looked lost, as they had on the shore of the lake when Neria had pulled him out.

**Though the Wilis had made an appearance, **Neria forced out, **There was no man or boy in sight. All that was before them was a Princess, crows, and a little yellow duck. Free from their duty to the dead writer, the restless spirits could pass on.**

Soon they were disappearing, shimmering gold before vanishing altogether. The duck was grateful for this. He had little time for gratitude though, for the crow people began to attack him.

His movements smaller than they had been as a human, the duck could barely dodge the beaks and claws that descended upon him. Many attacks were carried through, and soon the duck was cut and bruised.

**But still he desired to keep fighting, no matter how hurt or how tired he was. **

Far above the fray, the Princess rose up on a stream of pale blossoms. She took aim at the Raven and release a bolt into its eye. The Raven howled in pain as blood rained from the sky again.

"DO YOU NOT CARE FOR THE BOY INSIDE OF ME!"

"After I defeat you, I will take my own life, and join the Prince in heaven!"

"BETTER THEN, FOR ME TO EAT YOU AND SEND YOU BOTH TO HELL! COME MY CREATURES, DO NOT BOTHER WITH THE DUCK! IT IS THE PRINCESS AND HER HEART THAT YOU SEEK!"

Duck quacked desperately as the crow-people took wing around him. Even though he was a bird, he had never been the greatest of flyers.

**As the duck took wing, a sudden gust of wind helped him on his way to the Princess.**

"Give us your heart! Give us your heart!" the towns people sang, "Give us your heart!"

Duck took a place upon the Princess's shoulder, knocking aside beaks and talons that dared try to take the heart he had so painstakingly restored.

"Begone foolish creature!" the Raven howled, red blood marring the blackness of her feathers. A huge torrent of dark air burst forth from the Raven's gaping mouth, dislodging the duck and nearly sending him crashing to the ground.

**But another gust of wind came to soften the landing.**

_No matter what I do, I cannot fight them, _thought the duck, _but I will dance for them. That I can do. I can feel Neria supporting me. I cannot give up here!_

From the ground the duck extended a wing as a hand to the people.

_Please,_ thought the duck, _Won't you come dance with me?_

**And the crows...and the crows,** a trembling hand wrote, **Turned their attention to the little bird...and left the Princess free to attack!**

Duck leapt and spun on his webbed feet, regardless of the bruises to his body. He kept going and going even though the crows' attacks were relentless. The duck's dance could never compare to the grace and ease of the Swan Knight's, but each and every movement overflowed with more emotion and soul than the Knight had ever shown.

_Please, everyone. Do not give in to the Raven! Fight the Raven's blood, and free yourselves!_

A few of the crows hesitated for a moment, and Duck dared to hope that he had reached them. Then talons came at his face again, and he was beaten back.

**But still the duck would not give up...**

**

* * *

**

Far above them, the Princess dodged still more crows, and the monstrous talons of the Raven herself. She was having difficulty getting a clear shot, though the Raven's face was now peppered with silvery arrows.

The girl could not bring herself to aim for the Raven's heart, fearing that she should miss and hit Robb. She needed clearer air. Rising on her cushion of flowers, she shot out of the ring of bird-people and toward the upper aether.

With her whole heart restored, the Princess could feel a great power within her. Raising her hand to the heavens she shouted, "In my name as Princess Sylvia; I call the name of the Prince, Robb!"

A pale glow, like a flickering flame, emitted from the Raven's belly. The Princess followed that light and dove straight into the Lady Raven's gaping beak.

* * *

"Princess, no!" Neria shouted, clenching her fist so tightly that the quill she was holding snapped into pieces.

In seconds Uzura was at her elbow with another one.

"You broke it-zura!"

"Where's Autora?"

"She's fighting the bird-lady with the axe-zura. She told me to tell you not to stop-zura!"

"That's right, I can't stop," said Neria, "If I let go now, Drosselmeyer will..."

* * *

Deep inside the Raven, Robb felt a pull that made him falter in his dance of desperation. He was not quite sure what it was, but it made his heart ache fiercely.

_"Robb, if you can hear me, cry out!"_ the Princess's voice echoed in his tired mind.

"What? No, Princess! Don't come down here! You can't!"

_"Robb, I've come for you."_

"Why! All I've done is hurt you!" He was crying now, tears of grief and frustration, "Forget about me! Marry the Knight and be happy! Leave me to my fate!"

_"No."_

A bright light erupted above him, and soon the Princess was in his sights. He had never seen her look like this before, so powerful and beautiful.

_So this is the true princess, _he thought in awe, _This is what I once sought to destroy. _

"Robb, I'm here," she said, extending a hand to me, "Come with me and we will defeat the Raven together."

"How can you still care for me? After all I've done to you!"

The Princess smiled at him. It warmed Robb's heart as it had many weeks ago at the Fire Festival when he had first set eyes upon it.

"You were only trying to love me, in the only way you knew. You suffered so much from the Raven's blood, but you never stopped loving."

"But-"

"Shhh. Let go of your regrets. We can defeat the Raven together."

"I-If that is what my Princess desires."

Robb stepped hesitantly onto the train of flowers. The Princess stepped in front of him.

"Put your hands on mine. We will loose the arrow in tandem."

"Princess, you don't need me to do this."

"No. But I want you here all the same," Sylvia replied, leaning into him. Robb's arms automatically tightened to support her.

Together they rose, on petals of icy blue, out of the wasteland of the Raven's belly, up through the dark hollows of the creature's body until at last they came upon the Raven's heart.

It was a dark, shimmering red, like the blood that had rained on the town. The thing pulsed with a dark, unquenchable fire.

Together the Princess and the Prince let fly the arrow that would free everyone from the clutches of the monster.

* * *

Outside, Duck's strength was waning. With their skyward quarry gone, all the crows had turned their attention to him. Beak and talon penetrated the fragile yellow feathers deep enough to draw blood.

He stumbled and fell.

** He still desired to fight, to save the people, to protect them from the Raven. Again the duck rose. **

On trembling legs, he stood, but they would not support him. He staggered into the legs of one of the crow, but found no respite as talons knocked him viciously into the air.

The duck landed hard on the pavement. A sharp black beak was aiming straight for his face. He had not the strength to move in time.

**But before the crow-person could strike, the air was filled with the dying screams of the monstrous Lady Raven. **

Duck screwed up his face as tightly as a duck could to try and block out the horrific sound. It was like the sound that Miss Cat had made, on those days she would run her claws down the practice room mirrors in frustration. It was like the sound of breaking ice. It was like the screams of the damned all at once.

The crows all stopped, frozen by the death of their mistress. One by one, the power the Raven's blood had over them broke. Red droplets glistened in the air, harmlessly as the illusion fell.

They all looked dazed, as though they could not recall how they had all arrived at the town square.

_The Princess, she did it, _Duck thought dimly. _She's saved everyone. I'm so glad. _

And then everything faded into darkness.

* * *

"Duck, no!" Neria shouted, tossing her quill across the desk in her haste to go to the side of her wounded friend.

"What? What's happened?" asked Autora from in front of a pile of bookcases and paraphernalia that she had used to block the door. "Is the story over?"

"Move it!" the Spinner said. "I have to help Duck!"

Autora pushed her back. "Not unless the story is over!"

"The Raven is dead, the town is saved, NOW LET ME GO!"

Neria shoved the other girl roughly out of the way and began to tear away at the barricade. Autora frowned and adjusted her glasses.

"If you really want to hurry, the window would be faster."

"WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU SAY SO!" screamed the writer, heading toward the back of the house.

A few seconds later, Autora heard a loud crash.

"I didn't mean you had to _break_ the window, you hopeless fool."

"Who's a fool-zura?"

"Huh? You're still here?"

* * *

The Raven's influence on the town was waning. The dark clouds that had gathered were dissipating, a pale midmorning sun peeking through. Everywhere, though was still coated in a thin red mist, the blood evaporating slowly by the return of the light.

Amidst the destruction, Robb had fallen. He had _felt_ the Raven's death within him, like a part of himself had died too. It was over. He was free, free to atone for all the grief he had caused everyone.

Then he felt a pair of warm hands on his face. The Princess knelt down beside him and pulled his head onto her lap. She cradled his face lovingly.

"Thank you, Robb," she said, "For being with me to face the Raven."

"You are free to do as you will now, according to your own heart," he replied quietly.

"Then I want you to come back with me, into the story, as my Prince."

"But Princess," Robb protested weakly, "I must stay here, and atone for my crimes against everyone."

"You have helped free them from the Raven. You are forgiven Robb. Now you must only forgive yourself."

The boy-turned-Raven-turned-boy-again couldn't help it. He cried.

The Princess only kissed his forehead in reply.

* * *

Neria found Duck sprawled out broken and bleeding in the town square. No one had thought to help the little injured bird in their post-Raven haziness. Gingerly the girl picked up the small body and cradled it against her chest.

The fat, wet tears that fell from her eyes roused the duck for a moment, only enough for him to croon softly against her warmth and nestle more comfortably into the crook of her arm.

_I'm so glad. _

* * *

It was late afternoon when Duck finally regained consciousness. Neria had painstakingly bandaged his wounds before tending properly to her own.

The Princess fretted about, uncomfortable with lingering long after the story's end, but she would not leave without saying goodbye to Duck. She clung tightly to Robb's white clad arm, after his Raven powers had vanished with the last of the bloody mist, and all he had left was his torn school uniform.

Autora made tea for everyone as Uzura chanted happily, "Lovey-dovey-zura! The Princess and the Prince are lovey-dovey-zura!", much to the embarrassment of the pair. Robb's blush was very apparent on his pale face, especially since Autora was in the room. He had apologized profusely for trying to seduce her, until she got fed up with apologies and smacked him across the face. Neria told them to shut up or she'd kick them out for waking Duck. Neither one brought the subject up again, though Autora had protested that Neria could not kick her out of her own house.

The glare that elicited told the violet-haired girl that she certainly could.

By that time however, Duck had already woken and was quacking meekly from the makeshift bed that Neria had created for him.

"Time to go-zura!" the puppet-boy sang happily, "Back to the story-zura!"

Duck nodded, _Let's give everyone their happy ending. _

He hopped out of the basket, and made it a few steps before beginning to wobble. Quickly Neria scooped him up into her arms. The duck quacked in protest.

"I don't care if you think you can walk," Neria said, "I'm going to carry because you're an idiot and you'll trip and fall and ruin all of the work I put into bandaging you."

Duck hissed at her, but ceased in his struggles.

The Princess turned to them, "Is it alright if we return to the story now? I fear that the longer we stay, the more chances Madame Drosselmeyer may have to dip her hands into things again."

"I won't let that happen," stated Neria, "But, yes. You and the Prince should go back."

Neria hadn't said anything to Robb about the matter, but with those words it was clear to the boy that she at least accepted him.

"We're going to the story now-zura? Can I lead-zura?" asked Uzura.

"Go ahead, little one," said the Princess.

* * *

They would have made an odd procession-two girls, a princess, a prince and a duck following a puppet- had anyone been able to see them. However, the story was ending in Goldkrone town, and the townspeople were beginning their real lives, and so they were blind to the characters of the tale.

The story was housed in the north gate, at the top of the watchtower. There was a worn looking doll-man, not nearly as cared for as Uzura was, and Mr. Edel had been, waiting for them when they arrived.

"Welcome back, Princess," he said, joints clicking.

"We're here for the story-zura!" Uzura chirped, standing on his tiptoes to see over the desk. "We're going up the stairs-zura!"

"Very well."

Uzura banged on his drum happily all the way up the spiral staircase to the top of the tower. The floor that they reached was home to a ticking range of gears of all shapes and sizes.

_Just like the place that Drosselmeyer held me,_ thought Duck, staring up at them.

Uzura pointed at a pendulum on one side, only instead of a weight at the end, from it dangled a quill. "That's the story-zura!"

"This...this is the wondrous machine that allowed Madame Drosselmeyer to continue her stories even after her death!" Autora said, awestruck, "Such a thing should be preserved for the future-What are you doing!"

Neria had grabbed the pendulum with her free hand and snapped it off. A tumble of gears clattered down as if in protest.

"I will finish this town's story. Drosselmeyer's time has long been over. It is for everyone to write the tale of their own lives now, free to make their own choices."

"But-"

"Autora, it's done." The girl turned to the Princess, "You are free to return home now, Princess, and live as you will."

"I thank you, Neria, for all you've done. And you too, Autora."

The girl forgot her dismay about the story-machine and flushed prettily.

"But most of all, thank you, Duck, for all that you've done for me. I will remember it always." The Princess leaned forward and kissed the little duck on the forehead. He thought he felt a little spark of heat where her lips touched him, but he was not quite sure.

Robb then stepped up. "May I?" he asked Neria, arms open to take the bird. She obliged.

"So you're Duck, are you?"

"Quack."

"I really...I'm really glad that I got to know you. I guess you're the first friend I've ever had." He ruffled the feathers on Duck's head, "T-take care of yourself."

"Quack."

"I guess this is goodbye then," said the Princess, "And again, thank you all, truly."

She took Robb's arm and a golden mist enveloped the pair. In the haze, Neria thought she saw an amber courtyard full of people waiting for their Princess's return, but perhaps she had imagined it.

Then they were gone. Uzura too, seemed to have vanished. The two girls and the duck stood silent for a time, before Autora spoke.

"So it's all over then, isn't it?"

"One thing ends, another begins."

* * *

It took many weeks to adjust to real life. Neria would sometimes wake at night, expecting Mythessa to be sleeping in the second bed in the dorm, but she never was.

To her surprise, if she could look past the girl's obsession with Drosselmeyer, Autora was a rather good friend. They sort of bonded over their mutual appreciation of books and good writing. Almost. Most of the time they just aggravated each other until someone decided to leave the room. Duck found this to be highly amusing.

* * *

It was nearing midwinter when truly the biggest change came about. Neria was home from school for the weekend, and it was late, but she was still up reading by candlelight.

Duck had fallen asleep some time ago, curled up in her lap, but now his bill was digging into her midriff in a painful way. She poked him in the side.

"Hey, you. Get up. You can't sleep there."

Duck awoke and quacked indignantly.

_You shouldn't wake people up like that, you big meanie! I wasn't doing anything to you! _

Neria bent low to look him in the face, "Don't take that tone with me, mister! You fell asleep on _me._ I have every right to move you!"

The duck lunged forward in an attempt to bite the girl on the nose, but his feet caught on her skirts and he went careening into her face instead.

Lips met bill and suddenly, the world became a whole lot smaller.

* * *

A true Princess always rewards those who aid her.

The End

* * *

Author's Note:

So I figured for the plot of the genderflipped series, it would have to be something like the ballet of Giselle mixed in with some Swan Lake, of course. I tried to keep as much to the ballet theme of the show as possible.

Mytho= (Princess) Giselle (only instead of suicide, she shatters her heart so that she will never love again!)

Rue/Kraehe= Loys/Albrecht (Complete with civilian alter-ego!)

Duck= Hilarion (THE LAKE OF DESPAIR PARALLELS!)

The Raven= Bathilde-ish (only evil, and of course, Albrecht's 'mother')

Drosselmeyer= Queen of the Wilis. 'cause they've got the whole 'dead' thing going on. and the making-people-suffer thing.

If you ever watch Hilarion's death in Giselle, (you can find it on youtube,) the Wilis are REALLY CREEPY. They are the souls of maidens jilted/killed before their wedding days. They dance men to their deaths indiscriminately.

Female Fakir would basically be the game-breaker who prevents everyone from dying the way they do in the original. Also, she'd be a magical-girl Archer person.

This entire fic was fueled by the power of granola and the Princess Tutu soundtrack. Special note to Giselle's entrance, Egemont Overture, String Quartet Nocturne and Danse Macabre. Those are all the songs that powered me through the final battle.

So yeah.

I tried to keep it within the shoujo parameters by making more about the Princess. At the same time, there are battles for the heart shards, not dances.

Neria (aka Female Fakir) is a derivative of the latin Nere, to spin or weave. I thought it was more fitting than Mystique, which was my other alternative.

I think it would be alright if Mythessa was pronounced like Myutessa in the Japanese.

Interestingly enough, I think Robb would be pronounced the same way as 'Love' (Rabu) in Japanese as well. It would also be similar to Rabe, the German for Raven.

NOW FOR THE MASSIVE REFERENCES:

First off, I dropped some Tam Lin early on.

Again, as mentioned before, massive connections to Giselle.

Swan Lake hints sort of float around, but they aren't really a major thing.

Now, for the Princess's name, Sylvia, that's from the ballet aptly named Sylvia (music composed by Leo Delibes of Coppelia fame) which is about the forbidden love of a nymph of Diana (virgin goddess of the hunt) and a shepherd, Aminta. Nymphs in Diana's retinue can't have lovers or anything. Until Sylvia saves Diana from an evil plot and the goddess lets her be with Aminta. yeah. It fits with the kind of person the Princess seems to be.

Lastly and most importantly, in all of the fairytales in which there are princesses, someone gets a reward (with princes, eh, not so much...). for something. be it marriage, shiny stuff, a pet dragon, whatever. In this case...

So yeah.

Thanks for stickin' with me through all 52 pages!

Much love

~Starcube


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